What to know | Revisiting Pei's 2025 Da'an District Picks: From Dill Pickle Pizza to Desserts and Tea Cocktails

In August 2025, Pei Liu, founder of Under Lab, publicly shared four of her favorite spots in Taipei's Da'an District, all clustered within walking distance of Under Lab's surrounding lanes. The list spans four distinctly different categories: pizza, French pastry, a tea cocktail bar, and salt-and-pepper fried chicken. This wasn't a culinary review but rather a reflection of her own daily routine, highlighting the diversity found among the small storefronts tucked into Da'an District's lanes.

Pizza and Dessert: Two Very Different Flavor Memories

The first spot is The Slice Shop, located in Lane 69, Section 2, Anhe Road. Pei Liu specifically recommends the dill pickle pizza, which she associates with a Gibson cocktail, drawing attention to the interplay of sourness, saltiness, and herbal notes. Other flavors on the menu include pineapple bacon, Reuben spicy beef, and spicy maple bacon, each offering a different combination of toppings. The dill pickle option, in particular, offers a thread connecting her personal drinking memories to food.

Only about a one-minute walk from Under Lab is Quelques Pâtisseries, located at Alley 4, Lane 345, Section 4, Renai Road—the place Pei Liu mentions visiting most frequently. She recommends the Hua You Kai Hao Le, the Saint-Honoré, and the seasonal strawberry oolong Mont Blanc, though she notes her personal favorite has always been the lemon tart. This was a personal preference she mentioned at the time of sharing and should not be interpreted as reflecting the shop's actual sales rankings.

What Is the Concept Behind Astea's Tea Cocktail Bar?

Astea is located at No. 236, Wenchang Road, and is run by Huang Xin-hao (known as Xiao Bai). Its core concept centers on infusing tea into cocktails, bringing the flavor structure of Taiwanese tea into both drinks and desserts. Pei Liu recommends the Jin Xuan Gin & Tonic, where the milky aroma of Jin Xuan tea layers with the herbal notes of gin, creating a connection in her choice from spirits to tea flavor. The pairing dish is a sesame Basque cheesecake served with soy milk cream—since the cake and soy milk cream are presented together as a pairing, this should not be assumed from the name alone to be dairy-free or low in sugar.

The final spot is Chu Zha, located in Lane 308, Guangfu South Road, the only salt-and-pepper fried chicken shop on the list. Pei Liu recommends the braised-then-fried pork knuckle, rice blood cake, chicken cartilage, and old-style fried sweet potato fries. These combinations lean toward an extension of traditional night market fried chicken stall offerings, but the method of preparing the pork knuckle by first braising it to infuse flavor before frying—referred to as "zha lu"—is a distinctive approach, allowing the exterior to remain crispy while retaining the savory depth of the braising liquid.

These four shops each represent choices Pei Liu makes at different times and for different occasions within her daily life circle: pizza and salt-and-pepper fried chicken belong to casual, spontaneous food runs, while the French pastry shop and tea cocktail bar are reserved for moments meant to be savored while sitting down. Since this list was shared publicly in August 2025, readers should confirm each shop's current menu and operating status before visiting.